Chicken Breasts

The chicken breast is America's favorite part of its favorite bird, and Food & Wine has the best recipes for this staple weeknight dinner ingredient. Chicken breasts are incredibly easy and fast to cook, and they're also healthy. Because they're low in fat and high in protein, lean chicken breasts benefit from careful cooking and flavorful marinades. Here are the best classic and innovative recipes for both bone-in and boneless chicken breasts including ginger-marinated chicken breasts, delicious cheese-stuffed chicken breasts, crispy pan-fried chicken breasts and a fantastic recipe for spiced chicken breasts with a coconut-caramel sauce from star chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

The chicken breast is America's favorite part of its favorite bird, and Food & Wine has the best recipes for this staple weeknight dinner ingredient. Chicken breasts are incredibly easy and fast to cook, and they're also healthy. Because they're low in fat and high in protein, lean chicken breasts benefit from careful cooking and flavorful marinades. Here are the best classic and innovative recipes for both bone-in and boneless chicken breasts including ginger-marinated chicken breasts, delicious cheese-stuffed chicken breasts, crispy pan-fried chicken breasts and a fantastic recipe for spiced chicken breasts with a coconut-caramel sauce from star chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

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Chai-Spiced Chicken Breasts

This satisfying chicken dish from Justin Chapple calls for just five ingredients. One of them is chai tea, which is mixed into a paste with oil and spread under the chicken skin to flavor the meat as it roasts.

Crisp Spiced Chicken

Spiced Chicken with Coconut-Caramel Sauce and Citrus Salad

Jean-Georges Vongerichten cleverly rethinks a classic Southeast Asian sauce not by what he adds, but by what he leaves out. Instead of a rich curry paste, he creates a creamy sauce with a caramel base, coconut milk and fish sauce.

Cheese-Stuffed Chicken Cutlets with Mustard Sauce

In this lovely riff on classic chicken cordon bleu, the heavy ham-and-Swiss-cheese filling is replaced with creamy havarti and thyme. Instead of weighing down the cutlets with thick breading, they are sautéed in a light flour-and-egg coating.

Chicken Breasts with Potatoes and Mashed Peas

Marcia Kiesel browns chicken breasts in butter on the stove before roasting them in the oven; the butter enriches both the chicken and browned pan juices, which become a base for the flavorful sauce. As a delicious accompaniment, she mashes minty green peasand mixes them in with whole ones.

Oven-Fried Chicken Breasts

"I admit that nothing can stand in for good fried chicken," says John Currence. "But this is a hell of an impostor." He adds sweet tea to his marinade; the tannins help tenderize the poultry while the sugar gives it a light cure. The accompanying gravy gets a ton of flavor from strips of caramelized onion.

Chicken Parmesan with Pepperoni

Piquant Chicken with Lemon and Capers

Chinese Poached Chicken Breasts with Star Anise

Chicken breasts poached in a broth flavored with star anise, cinnamon, ginger, scallions, and soy sauce is a Chinese classic. Traditionally you would save, not serve, the broth—it improves each time you use it—but we can never resist serving it with the chicken as a light sauce. If you like, boil noodles separately and add them to the broth for a meal in a dish.

Chicken Breasts with Artichoke-Olive Sauce

Yucatán-Spiced Chicken

These roasted bone-in chicken breasts with a light, citrusy sauce were inspired by Marcie Turney's trip to the Yucatán. At her restaurant, the chicken's burnished color comes from achiote, a paste made with annatto seeds.

Honey-Rosemary Chicken with Cherry Tomatoes

Chicken Parmesan Heros

Hero sandwiches at the sub shop are usually served on untoasted rolls, but we prefer to brush the bread with olive oil and run it under the broiler for a minute or two. If you like, put a slice of mozzarella on the top half of each before broiling.

Chicken-and-Andouille Étouffée

Étouffée—from the French word for smother, stew or braise—is a classic Cajun dish of shellfish (or sometimes chicken) served over rice. Grace Parisi uses chicken breast, whole wheat flour and only three ounces of andouille sausage to make the recipe lighter.

Hot-and-Crunchy Chicken Cones

Pan-Roasted Chicken with Citrus Sauce

John Sedlar flavors the bird with a range of citrus, including Cara Cara oranges, blood oranges and pomelos. For the home cook, the dish is just as delicious with a simple mix of navel oranges and limes.

Chicken Breasts with Walnuts, Leeks and Candied Lemon

Pickle-Brined Chicken

"When you have leftover pickle juice, isn't it a waste not to use it to make chicken taste delicious?" asks Frank Falcinelli. He brines chicken breast in dill-pickle juice to flavor it and keep it moist in the oven, then serves it on top of supertender leg meat he's shredded and mixed with sautéed chard.

Ginger-Marinated Bulgogi-Style Chicken

Bulgogi, the Korean classic, calls for slices of rich beef; this version uses thinly sliced chicken breast, which has barely any fat at all. The chicken is best served with rice and lettuce leaves for wrapping. Kimchi, a spicy, garlicky Korean pickle often made with cabbage, is especially delicious on the side and is loaded with beneficial bacteria known as probiotics.

Chicken Breasts with Apricot-Onion Pan Sauce

After sautéing chicken breasts, Melissa Rubel Jacobson adds diced onions and white wine to sweep up the delicious browned bits left in the skillet, then sweetens the sauce slightly with dried apricots and apricot preserves.

Maple-Glazed Chicken Breasts with Mustard Jus

Chef David Slater glazes chicken breasts with maple syrup, sherry vinegar and orange juice infused with anise and other spices. Then he serves them with a confited chicken leg, caramelized root vegetables, braised kale and crisp Benton's bacon. At home, glaze the chicken breasts with a sweet-tangy blend of syrup and vinegar and skip the confited leg and root vegetables.

Herb-Marinated Chicken Skewers with Harissa

Andres Barrera briefly marinates chicken in herbs and cumin before skewering and grilling it; then he serves it with a cool chickpea puree and fiery harissa. His harissa is a knockout, scented with toasted and ground cumin seeds, coriander and caraway seeds, but jarred harissa also works.

Pan-Roasted Chicken Breasts with Mole Negro

Oaxaca is famous for its complex mole sauces, often made with more than 20 ingredients, like unsweetened chocolate, seeds and chiles. Since moles are so time-consuming to make, most Mexican cooks rely on the prepared pastes sold at the outdoor markets, and Olmedo is no exception. Instead of stewing chicken in the mole, he takes a more elegant approach: He roasts chicken breasts until the skin is crisp and serves the mole alongside.

Twice-Glazed Asian Barbecued Chicken

Instead of the usual smoky-sweet tomato-based barbecue sauce, Mike Sheerin bases his Asian-style version on oyster sauce, soy sauce and roasted garlic, with toasted black peppercorns added for heat. The sauce is superb glazed on chicken, but it would also be great on pork or steak.

Waldorf Chicken Salad

Mark Sullivan brines poultry before roasting it, then tosses it with little gem lettuce, pickled grapes and candied walnuts. The total number of ingredients: 28. At home, streamline the ingredient list to lower the cost: This recipe calls for about half the ingredients.

Harissa Chicken with Green-Chile-and-Tomato Salad

Thai Grilled Chicken with Cilantro Dipping Sauce

Cilantro stems get in the act in this recipe; they're pureed with the leaves, jalapeños, garlic, fish sauce, and sesame oil to make a flavorful coating for grilled chicken. The dipping sauce, which also contains cilantro, is a classic Thai sweet-and-sour sauce.

Chicken and Smoked-Sausage Gumbo

The flavor of browned roux is essential to the traditional taste of Louisiana gumbo. So don't worry if the flour mixture looks like peanut butter by the time the vegetables have softened. That's just as it should be.